Opener Tomas Lewis was a late replacement due to illness, but any sense of last-minute compromise soon disappeared. Affable and armed with acoustic guitar and an electric drum pedal, he produced a gentle, sparse sound that filled Clwb Ifor Bach’s ground floor room. His voice, at times not dissimilar to David Gray’s, suited a set that included a cover of Stephen Fretwell’s Run – familiar to many from Gavin & Stacey – before closing with the first song he ever wrote, I Want You To Stay.
For Courtney Marie Andrews, this was the penultimate night of three months of touring; having recently seen her twice, in full-band mode playing latest album Valentine then supporting Glen Hansard at Bristol Beacon, tonight was a contrast. Downsized from the Gate in Roath, the gig became an intimate club affair, to the benefit of those packed into the room.
With no house piano available, Andrews played acoustic guitar throughout, joined by Jerry Bernhardt on electric guitar. Without the full-band arrangements that frame her newer material, everything came back to the bare essentials: the voice, the writing, and the emotional precision of her delivery. She began with the aptly titled Not The End and Break The Spell, before Cons & Clowns from the new album. The Arizonan singer’s guitar strings needed constant attention in the May heat, but her exquisite vocal cords did not.
Soaring vocals and delicate playing are complemented by Bernhardt’s washes of reverb-heavy guitar, sending shivers down the spine despite the sweltering conditions. Best Friend, written to her seven-year-old self and introduced as possibly the saddest song she has written, was especially affecting. Often trance-like, lost in song, yet never losing the room, across a 90-minute set spanning her career (and including unreleased new song Eleven Red Horses) there were no weak points, though Hangman, Irene and Burlap String particularly stood out.
Before the closing stretch, Andrews thanked us for coming to her “sauna”, adding that it was probably good for our health, then offered the bittersweet news that there were just two songs before we could take a cold plunge.
If I Told built to its heartwarming conclusion, ending the set. An encore was inevitable, with request-led versions of Honest Life and the country-tinged tale Table For One, both from her breakthrough 2016 album. Before playing a third song, she recalled that when she last played this room, around the time of that album’s release, it was the first occasion she had performed to an audience of strangers. Tonight, she must have felt among friends. Ending with May Your Kindness Remain, Andrews left to rapturous applause.
Courtney Marie Andrews + Tomas Lewis, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Wed 27 May
Words KARL ELLIS & ALI ELLIS photos KARL ELLIS
